Many modern surgical procedures require that the patient's extremities be tucked at their side to provide optimal surgical exposure. Many times, one or both of the patient's arms are placed directly at the patient's side. To insure that the patient's extremities do not move, they are cushioned and immobilized. It is the responsibility of all the members of the surgical team (operating room nurses, anesthesia, surgeon, etc.) to protect the patient from positioning injuries. Rigid devices, such as hard plastic patient access devices used with intravenous lines and arterial lines, can cause tissue or nerve compression injuries. These devices need to be padded so that they do not cause injuries to the patient.
To protect the patient during surgery, operating room personnel usually wrap the individual rigid devices with non-sterile gauze and tape. For example, the anesthesia staff may have to manually tape and pad any hard plastic components of the intravenous or arterial tubing such as access ports which are often directly adjacent to the patient's extremities. This creates a soft bundle which rests against the patient's body. When the extremities are immobilized it is often done with sheets or safety straps firmly placed against the patient. Utmost care is taken to insure that there is not direct contact between the rigid devices and the patient's skin.
When the surgery is complete, the padding process is reversed. This involves taking off the non-sterile gauze and tape on the rigid devices. Depending on the amount of tape around the devices, this can take several minutes when time is critical. The tape can also leave a sticky residue around the rigid devices and/or connective tubing. This sticky residue can be an attractant to germs. Although the type of positioning is necessary for a successful surgical outcome, the wrapping and unwrapping can be time consuming at especially critical times.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a method and device to protect the patient from injury due to rigid medical devices against the skin, and it would also be desirable for the method and device to allow for rapid application to and removal from the patient.